The Art of Winter Olympic Sports

February 6, 2014–February 24, 2014

In honor of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, this small display features several olympic-themed bronzes of speed skaters and figure skaters by Robert Tait McKenzie from the McClung Museum’s Joseph B. Wolffe Collection. Robert Tait McKenzie was a physician and director of physical education who combined his love of sports and art in a career as a sculptor. He began creating sculptures of athletes around 1900, and went on to make many medals, friezes, and sculptures, producing nearly 400 works in his lifetime.

Joseph B. Wolffe was a physician in Germantown, Pennsylvania. As one of the founders of the American College of Sports Medicine, he shared with McKenzie the belief in the use of exercise and sport as a tool for preventative medicine. Over a 25 year period, Wolffe assembled a collection of over a hundred bronze statuettes, sketches, bas reliefs, medals, and plaques by McKenzie.